This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0061967 filed on Jul. 9, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly, to an LCD in which a pixel is divided into a plurality of domains to increase the viewing angle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one of the most widely used type of flat panel display today. An LCD includes two substrates provided with field-generating electrodes, such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which determines orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust the polarization of light that passes through the LC layer.
Various techniques for increasing the viewing angle have been suggested. In particular, one technique uses vertically aligned LC molecules and provides cutouts and protrusions at each field-generating electrode.
The wide viewing angle of the VA mode LCD can be realized by cutouts in the field-generating electrodes and protrusions on the field-generating electrodes. Since the cutouts and the protrusions can determine the orientation of the LC molecules, light can be made to propagate in different directions by using the cutouts and the protrusions. By controlling the light to propagate in different directions, the reference viewing angle is widened.
A domain-division type LCD may also be used to widen the viewing angle. In a domain-division type LCD, domains are divided into multiple groups and different data voltages are applied to the respective domain groups. In particular, one pixel is divided into at least two domain groups and different data voltages are applied to the respective domain groups.
In such a conventional LCD, there is a gap between the domain groups. The liquid crystal alignment is disturbed by the electric fields in different lateral directions at the intersection between this gap and a coupling electrode connecting portion connecting the drain electrodes. This disturbance in the liquid crystal alignment results in undesirable texture and light leakage. In particular, when a screen is changed from black to white in a normally black mode, the intersection stays black a little while longer than the rest of the display (referred to as an instantaneous afterimage).
A method of achieving a wide viewing angle without the above problems is desired.